The Chef with a Knife and a Flute

My name is Vincent Britto. and I've been working as a professional Chef for 2 decades, travelling around the world , graduated in French Pastries from the prestigious, " Le Cordon Bleu London " passionate about oil painiting, charcoal pencil Art n Music , born in Gujrat ,bought up in Mumbai ( Santacruz) but settled in Karnataka Mangalore ( Vamanjoor ) with my l wife and 2 precious kids. professional kitchens are really tough physically and mentally, deadlines, bulk orders, high flames, peak hours performances is what keeps me on my toes for 14 hours daily, the performance pressure drains all your energy at the end of the day.

Growing up in Mumbai Santacruz, lots of temples around, between the hustle and the bustle of everyday life, sounds of bhajans , keertans, temple bells and the mesmerizing perfume of the insence sticks filled the air, and in all that a flute vendor holding the bamboo trunk on his shoulder with lots of Flutes hooked to it, walking and playing on the Flute some beautiful old Hindi songs and melodies, as if it's not a big deal, trying to earn his living, if only he could see through my eyes what all this actually meant for me. casually someone , a bystander or a passerby who loved old songs, would ask him to play and with sheer enthusiasm of making a sale, he would pick one and play some music or a song , this is when I was infatuated with the flute, it was more like " love at First Sight" . every time the flute vendor came I would follow him, but the day I asked him, if I could try, he calmly handed me one , the first blow of air in the Flute, filled with expectation of beautiful music flowing out of the wooden flute came crashing down, like a glass hitting a rock and shattering into pieces, fear set in, that this musical instrument was not meant for me, and I won't be able to play it ever.

years passed, life got me busy with kitchen jobs and family responsibilities , if I saw somebody playing the flute, I used to look at him and felt like ' The Love of my Life" in somebody else's arms, but then I consoled myself saying " She was never meant to be Yours". until the day ,casually scrolling the net, I saw a " SAPNO KA SAUDAGAR" ( Harsh Dave ) talking and assuring people that anyone could play the flute, I felt he was talking to me directly like a divine intervention , felt like a sharp spear hit the very core of my heart, where I had buried my childhood Love, my desire to play the Flute I was in a trance, hearing him play, without even blinking I pressed the button to join the free Materclass, that 90 min. of " PRAVACHAN' I would say, on how anyone following his guidance and strategy can Master flute, hit me so hard, I broke out of the Mindset that I can't play and decided instantly that I'll get my childhood love back , on boarding took place on the 2nd Jan 2025, now I was facing a big dilemma , the flute was delivered to my home in India but I was in Iraq

here I was planning to start something so divine, but the start was not easy, not in terms of playing the flute, I was working in Iraq and getting a flute was like finding needle in hay stack, they had flutes but it was completely different from our classical Indian flute, finally I found something and started practicing with full excitement until one day, my Mentor (Nalin sir) told me that it's not a flute but a Japanese instrument called Recorder, and practicing with it will only take me the wrong way, with still few months remaining for me to fly back to India and get my hands on my straight flute, I kept me going, in the busy kitchen schedules and orders I kept watching recordings, improving my hearing capability for Alankaras and swaras

coming back to India on 20 Feb 2025, I got my hands on my flute and actually started practicing for real, it was not easy, finding the right stance of holding the flute, blowing pressure, shivering lips, sweating fingers, spit drooling down the flute, all of this happening together adding to it was the pressure and the pressure of holding the breath for long " watching Harsh sir play the long notes and holding his breath for such a long time , sent not shivers but question marks ????? down the spine asking myself , will I be able to play like him ever, apart from that something was trying to take me away form my flute, I met with an accident and broke my arm bone in 3 places, practice stopped, vacation over, flew back to Iraq, it took me 6 months to recover but I kept on going listening to recordings and practicing cleared foundation (FFC) on the 7th of July 2025 and later the L0 level. Harsh Sir came with a vision a mission but most importantly he came with a STRATEGY and a Flute like Harry Potter magical wand, everyword every promise he made during the 90 min masterclass came true and that's what helped me I blindly followed his instruction and advice and it worked, my fingers danced at my request, started actually playing, the Dream of my childhood Love (Flute ) in my arms, was finally coming true, without thinking I decided to become a Lifetime Member, practice didn't stop, Mentors help, 1:1 with Harsh sir, online classes, practice sessions brought the best out of me, I was on the verge of completing L1 that's when tragedy struck again had to undergo a spinal surgery, Dr's adviced 4 months of recovery time ,till then full rest, couldn't practice with a neck strap, but this time the flame of playing the flute did not dim, it was more strong and in spite of no practice and elongated recovery time , against Dr's advice I removed the neck strap and started practicing went through severe spine pain, but didn't give up .

Behind my efforts was my Guru sending me mail and messaging wishes for my recovery, here is a person who got upset like a Father, if you didn't practice well but also like a Mother praying and wishing well, I completed all the Ragas, Alankaras, necessary to qualify and clear the L1FC and waited, and on 30 April 2026 , I finally recieved a Mail from Harsh sir, congratulating me on completing the L1 level, and gave me his blessings and permission to start my L2 journey, Harsh sir, came with a mission to help people like me to come out of the Mindset that only few people can play the flute I believed his words, enthusiasm, persistence, and his strategy, his promise of bringing back the beautiful Flute in every home possible, I'm really surprised that even though I went through so many difficulties, the only thing that kept me going was Harsh sir's live classes, recordings , and the Melodious Music coming out of the flute in his hands ,friends if you read my story you will see I've mentioned dates, I've mentioned those dates so you can calculate the amount of time I had. to practice my flute, my accidents my surgeries took lots of precious training time from me but still in a very short period of time I achieved a lot,and you can do the same don't stop yourself for any reason you might know Eklavya, when not accepted as a student , he sculpted his Guru's image and practiced with his blessings, and became the best Archer even better than student trained personally by Dronacharya, and here we have a Guru who with open arms is waiting to accept and teach us, what an opportunity, whoever thinks he cannot do it , take the flute, close your eyes take a deep breath picture Harsh sir in your mind and play, you'll see the change instantly my best wishes are with you all,

initially when I started to play, I recieved mix reviews from my colleagues and friends as usual, it's a normal thing to happen when you're learning but don't let the criticism or praises faulter you from your goals, stay focused and practice daily you know when I play in the kitchen they call me " The Chef with a Knife and a Flute, he can Fill you with his Food and Heal you with his Flute, finally I want to share a secret with you all, other than my wife and kids nobody in my family even my mother knows that I'm learning to play the flute, and that one day I'll surprise them with my performance in some family get together and I'm preety sure after my superb performance amongst family and friends completely surprised with wide opened eyes and dropping jaws, I'll join my hands with Respect to my Guru ( Harsh sir) and proudly say

"I AM A GANDHARVA"